NYPD brass has warned rank-and-file cops last week to think twice about high-speed pursuits in the wake of recent incidents that left civilians injured, The Post has learned.
Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey issued a reminder last week for officers to brush up on existing guidelines for car chases, citing “recent increases in quality of life complaints related to stolen vehicles, and the reckless and illegal operation of all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes on city streets.”
“A vehicle pursuit must be terminated whenever the risk to members of the service and the public outweighs the danger to the community if the suspect is not immediately apprehended,” he noted in the Aug. 10 memo.
The memo comes as NYPD officials have publicly defended the citywide uptick in car chases as a crucial crime-fighting tool.
“We’re pretty good at it and we’re gonna continue stopping cars and bikes that are breaking laws in New York City,” Chief of Patrol John Chell told WNBC-TV News in a report this week.
But some of the recent police pursuits through city streets have ended in serious wrecks — including on Aug. 1, when a stolen car fleeing cops plowed into three vehicles and several pedestrians in Manhattan, injuring 10 people, including two children.
In June, four police officers were injured when a chase through Canarsie ended with two patrol cars smashed into the speeding vehicle they were pursuing.
The month prior, motorists in Queens dialed 311 while shooting a video of an NYPD SUV swerving wildly in traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway while trying to box in a suspect on a speeding moped.
In the memo, Maddrey reminded cops that “The decision to engage in a vehicle pursuit must be reasonable under the circumstances,” citing existing departmental policy on chases.
“When considering the need to begin and continue a vehicle pursuit, members of the service must consider the nature of offense, the time of day, weather conditions, location and population density, the capability of the department vehicle and their familiarity with the area,” the chief wrote.
“Members of the service has as their primary duty to protect human life, including the lives of other members of the service, innocent bystanders, and the lives of individuals being placed in police custody,” he added.
Chell has attributed the increase in police pursuits to a crackdown on so-called ghost cars when he was asked last month about a report by THE CITY that found a nearly 600% jump in the number of chases so far this year, compared to the same period in 2022.
“Every morning, I wake up to something involving one of these illegal bikes or cars and paper plates,” he said on NY1.
Chell also defended some of the pursuits last month, saying successful chases have nabbed dangerous suspects — including a man who carjacked an 87-year-old motorist in late June and a July 5 incident when two gunmen in a fleeing car shot and killed a teenager in the Bronx.
“Yeah, we’re gonna chase that car and we did,” Chell said at a July 6 press briefing. “We got an arrest.
“So, yes. Vehicle pursuits are up,” he said. “We have better monitoring from supervisors. I’ll say it again, the days of driving around this city lawless, doing what you think you’re gonna do, it’s over.”